S.N.A.P. Films have unveiled their new development slate, including a film and true crime limited series about the first female mob boss Bessie Starkman.
The Canadian production company, founded by Sergio Navarretta and Alessandra Piccione, has also secured Dr. Bernie Siegel’s life rights with a view to working on a documentary and feature film about what they describe as “America’s most controversial doctor in the field of mind-body healing and patient empowerment” as well as optioning the rights to the book “Rocco Perri: The Story of Canada’s Most Notorious Bootlegger” by Antonio Nicaso, which they are also planning to adapt as a feature.
Piccione will write and produce while Navarretta will direct and produce.
They have been joined by Luna Zhang, who joins the company as a business development executive. Zhang will be based in L.A. but is taking meetings during Berlin EFM.
Distribution veterans Tony Cianciotta...
The Canadian production company, founded by Sergio Navarretta and Alessandra Piccione, has also secured Dr. Bernie Siegel’s life rights with a view to working on a documentary and feature film about what they describe as “America’s most controversial doctor in the field of mind-body healing and patient empowerment” as well as optioning the rights to the book “Rocco Perri: The Story of Canada’s Most Notorious Bootlegger” by Antonio Nicaso, which they are also planning to adapt as a feature.
Piccione will write and produce while Navarretta will direct and produce.
They have been joined by Luna Zhang, who joins the company as a business development executive. Zhang will be based in L.A. but is taking meetings during Berlin EFM.
Distribution veterans Tony Cianciotta...
- 2/21/2023
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Ritman spoke to Sergio Navarretta, director of The Cuban, plus the film’s lead star and producer Ana Golja and her fellow castmembers Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo, in a THR Presents Q&a powered by Vision Media.
The wide-ranging conversation saw the filmmakers and actors discuss the key messages and takeaways from the Canadian film, which has already won several awards, including at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival, Montreal Black Film Festival and Whistler Film Festival.
The Cuban follows Mina Ayoub (Golja), a pre-med student and once-aspiring singer working part-time in a Canadian care home ...
The wide-ranging conversation saw the filmmakers and actors discuss the key messages and takeaways from the Canadian film, which has already won several awards, including at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival, Montreal Black Film Festival and Whistler Film Festival.
The Cuban follows Mina Ayoub (Golja), a pre-med student and once-aspiring singer working part-time in a Canadian care home ...
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Ritman spoke to Sergio Navarretta, director of The Cuban, plus the film’s lead star and producer Ana Golja and her fellow castmembers Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo, in a THR Presents Q&a powered by Vision Media.
The wide-ranging conversation saw the filmmakers and actors discuss the key messages and takeaways from the Canadian film, which has already won several awards, including at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival, Montreal Black Film Festival and Whistler Film Festival.
The Cuban follows Mina Ayoub (Golja), a pre-med student and once-aspiring singer working part-time in a Canadian care home ...
The wide-ranging conversation saw the filmmakers and actors discuss the key messages and takeaways from the Canadian film, which has already won several awards, including at the Los Angeles Pan African Film Festival, Montreal Black Film Festival and Whistler Film Festival.
The Cuban follows Mina Ayoub (Golja), a pre-med student and once-aspiring singer working part-time in a Canadian care home ...
Sergio Navarretta’s The Cuban is set to be released on VOD on October 6, 2020, following its July 31st virtual cinema release. The film was directed by Sergio Navarretta and stars Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr., Academy Award nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo, Ana Golja, Emmy winner Lauren Holly and Giacomo Gianniotti (Grey’s Anatomy). The screenplay was written by Alessandra Piccione, and the film was produced by Piccione and Navarretta of S.N.A.P. Films Inc., alongside Golja and Taras Koltun. The Afro-Cuban score was composed by legendary Grammy-nominated and Juno winning Cuban-Canadian pianist Hilario Duran and produced by Roberto Occhipinti. The sound team was led by Oscar-nominated sound editor Neslon Ferreira (The Shape of Water). The film was shot in Brantford and Paris Ontario Canada, as well as Havana, Cuba. The Cuban is a musical journey of love, friendship, and the power of the imagination. When a naïve pre-med student...
- 9/30/2020
- by Kristyn Clarke
- Age of the Nerd
In what’s shaping up to be the strangest weekend yet since the coronavirus outbreak forced American theaters to close, the biggest release is Beyoncé’s visual album, “Black Is King,” a visionary feature-length companion to her 2019 album, in the tradition of “Lemonade.”
A number of studio movies — including Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” — had tentatively planted their flag on July 31, only to delay amid the latest spike of infections. But the strategy is changing lately, as Russell Crowe road-rage thriller “Unhinged” moves forward with its release … abroad. Now “Tenet” and other titles are weighing a similar international-first strategy.
That leaves U.S. audiences with two very different options: Buy a ticket and fly abroad to see the tentpoles you’re missing (assuming foreign nations let Americans enter the country), or make do with the virtual releases that remain. In some cases, films are still pushing for limited theatrical releases among...
A number of studio movies — including Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” — had tentatively planted their flag on July 31, only to delay amid the latest spike of infections. But the strategy is changing lately, as Russell Crowe road-rage thriller “Unhinged” moves forward with its release … abroad. Now “Tenet” and other titles are weighing a similar international-first strategy.
That leaves U.S. audiences with two very different options: Buy a ticket and fly abroad to see the tentpoles you’re missing (assuming foreign nations let Americans enter the country), or make do with the virtual releases that remain. In some cases, films are still pushing for limited theatrical releases among...
- 7/31/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Cuba is a really interesting place. I’ve actually been there, though only for a day, back a few years ago before the U.S. government again made it difficult to travel to the island. I only mention this to bring up the potential inherent in setting a story even partially in that country. The Cuban, opening today, opts to do just such a thing, though is unable to fully build upon the premise and the promise of that element, especially when it goes so far as to actually shoot in Havana (more on that in a bit). Despite a touching turn from Louis Gossett Jr. and some charming emotions, the final product sadly leaves you wanting more. The movie is a drama about an unexpected friendship that develops in a nursing home. When naive pre-med student Mina (Ana Golja) gets her first job, it’s in a nursing home, which...
- 7/31/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Music is at the heart of director Sergio Navarretta’s “The Cuban,” set for a limited theatrical release July 31. In the movie, pre-med student Mina, played by Ana Golja (“Degrassi”), is tasked with caring for Luis, portrayed by Louis Gossett Jr., who is struggling with Alzheimer’s and has retreated into himself. As she feeds him, she tells him of her dreams of being a musician and hums tunes from her childhood in Afghanistan. Luis sparks to the songs, and begins to come out of his shell.
Navarretta points to “The Mambo Kings” as an inspiration for his film, saying he was so moved by the music in that 1992 movie, about a pair of brothers who flee Havana for New York in the ’50s, that he wanted to make a picture with music as its focal point. His choice to create that sound was Grammy Award-nominated Cuban jazz artist Hilario Durán.
Navarretta points to “The Mambo Kings” as an inspiration for his film, saying he was so moved by the music in that 1992 movie, about a pair of brothers who flee Havana for New York in the ’50s, that he wanted to make a picture with music as its focal point. His choice to create that sound was Grammy Award-nominated Cuban jazz artist Hilario Durán.
- 7/31/2020
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
There are several very mildly cautionary notes sounded in Sergio Navarretta’s “The Cuban,” . There’s the gentle exhortation not to follow someone else’s dream at the expense of your own. There’s a subtle finger-wag at ageism, at the assumption that because someone is elderly or infirm they have nothing left to give the world. And there’s a whole lot about the healing power of music. But the real learning here ought to be that if you cast two such charismatic performers as Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo in your movie, it would be better to clear all the Life Lesson clutter away and just let them get on with it.
Gossett plays Luis Garcia, a heavily medicated Alzheimer’s patient in a care home where he spends most of his time staring into the middle distance in his room — institutionally tidy except for a poster...
Gossett plays Luis Garcia, a heavily medicated Alzheimer’s patient in a care home where he spends most of his time staring into the middle distance in his room — institutionally tidy except for a poster...
- 7/30/2020
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
"We teach people how to love." Brainstorm Media has released the first official trailer for The Cuban, a heartwarming indie drama from Canadian-Italian filmmaker Sergio Navarretta. This first premiered at the Whistler Film Festival last year, and it also played at the Sonoma Film Festival earlier this year. Ana Golja plays a naïve pre-med student who lands her first job working in a nursing home. An unexpected friendship with Luis, an elderly Cuban musician there, reignites her love of music and changes her life forever. Starring the tremendously wonderful Louis Gossett Jr. (last seen on HBO's "Watchmen") as the Cuban musician Luis. With a cast including Shohreh Aghdashloo, Lauren Holly, Shiva Negar, Jonathan Keltz, and Giacomo Gianniotti. This looks like it's an emotional, energizing film about the amazing power of music. Here's the first official Us trailer (+ poster) for Sergio Navarretta's The Cuban, direct from YouTube: A musical journey of love,...
- 7/7/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Brainstorm Media has picked up the U.S. rights to Sergio Navarretta’s The Cuban, a coming-of-age drama starring Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo.
The indie, shot in Canada and Cuba, is set for a theatrical and virtual release July 31, with plans for VOD in the fall. "The Cuban is exactly the film we need right now. It’s filled with Afro-Cuban and salsa music, brilliant performances and a ton of heart,” Michelle Shwarzstein, vp marketing and acquisitions at Brainstorm Media, said in a statement Wednesday.
The Cuban, also starring Degrassi: Next Class actress Ana Golja,...
The indie, shot in Canada and Cuba, is set for a theatrical and virtual release July 31, with plans for VOD in the fall. "The Cuban is exactly the film we need right now. It’s filled with Afro-Cuban and salsa music, brilliant performances and a ton of heart,” Michelle Shwarzstein, vp marketing and acquisitions at Brainstorm Media, said in a statement Wednesday.
The Cuban, also starring Degrassi: Next Class actress Ana Golja,...
Brainstorm Media has picked up the U.S. rights to Sergio Navarretta’s The Cuban, a coming-of-age drama starring Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo.
The indie, shot in Canada and Cuba, is set for a theatrical and virtual release July 31, with plans for VOD in the fall. "The Cuban is exactly the film we need right now. It’s filled with Afro-Cuban and salsa music, brilliant performances and a ton of heart,” Michelle Shwarzstein, vp marketing and acquisitions at Brainstorm Media, said in a statement Wednesday.
The Cuban, also starring Degrassi: Next Class actress Ana Golja,...
The indie, shot in Canada and Cuba, is set for a theatrical and virtual release July 31, with plans for VOD in the fall. "The Cuban is exactly the film we need right now. It’s filled with Afro-Cuban and salsa music, brilliant performances and a ton of heart,” Michelle Shwarzstein, vp marketing and acquisitions at Brainstorm Media, said in a statement Wednesday.
The Cuban, also starring Degrassi: Next Class actress Ana Golja,...
WFF19 attracted a total of 12,339 attendees across our programming including 6,450 film-screening attendees and 2,180 special event attendees. On the Industry side, the Content Summit welcomed 2,655 attendees, 116 talent program attendees and 938 delegates.
The Whistler Film Festival’s Audience Award sponsored by Fisherman’s Friend went to the North American premiere of LIBERTÉ: A Call To Spy, an exciting true story about female spies during WWII. The film is an American title shot partly in Budapest and was produced, written by and stars Sarah Megan Thomas and was directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher. The Wff Audience Award runner-up was The Cuban directed by Sergio Navarretta, which had its world premiere at the festival. The Wff Audience Award for Most Popular Canadian Film went to Antigone, Canada’s official submission in this year’s international film Oscars category. Directed by Sophie Deraspe, the film won four of the five Borsos Competition Awards including Best Canadian Feature.
The Whistler Film Festival’s Audience Award sponsored by Fisherman’s Friend went to the North American premiere of LIBERTÉ: A Call To Spy, an exciting true story about female spies during WWII. The film is an American title shot partly in Budapest and was produced, written by and stars Sarah Megan Thomas and was directed by Lydia Dean Pilcher. The Wff Audience Award runner-up was The Cuban directed by Sergio Navarretta, which had its world premiere at the festival. The Wff Audience Award for Most Popular Canadian Film went to Antigone, Canada’s official submission in this year’s international film Oscars category. Directed by Sophie Deraspe, the film won four of the five Borsos Competition Awards including Best Canadian Feature.
- 12/25/2019
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo are starring in The Cuban, an indie coming-of-age drama from S.N.A.P. Films and director Sergio Navarretta.
The film, shooting in Brantford and Brant County in southern Ontario through mid-May, also stars Degrassi: Next Class actress Ana Golja, Giacomo Gianniotti and Lauren Holly.
The Cuban portrays a young Afghan immigrant named Mina (Golja) who starts her first job at a nursing home when an unexpected friendship with Luis, a Cuban resident with dementia, reignites her love of music and changes her life.
Gossett Jr. will play the nursing home resident, Luis, and Aghdashloo...
The film, shooting in Brantford and Brant County in southern Ontario through mid-May, also stars Degrassi: Next Class actress Ana Golja, Giacomo Gianniotti and Lauren Holly.
The Cuban portrays a young Afghan immigrant named Mina (Golja) who starts her first job at a nursing home when an unexpected friendship with Luis, a Cuban resident with dementia, reignites her love of music and changes her life.
Gossett Jr. will play the nursing home resident, Luis, and Aghdashloo...
- 4/16/2018
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. and Shohreh Aghdashloo are starring in <em>The Cuban</em>, an indie coming-of-age drama from S.N.A.P. Films and director Sergio Navarretta.
The film, shooting in Brantford and Brant County in southern Ontario through mid-May, also stars <em>Degrassi: Next Class</em> actress Ana Golja, Giacomo Gianniotti and Lauren Holly.
<em>The Cuban</em> portrays a young Afghan immigrant named Mina (Golja) who starts her first job at a nursing home when an unexpected friendship with Luis, a Cuban resident with dementia, reignites her love of music and changes her life.
Gossett Jr. will play the nursing home resident, Luis, and Aghdashloo ...
The film, shooting in Brantford and Brant County in southern Ontario through mid-May, also stars <em>Degrassi: Next Class</em> actress Ana Golja, Giacomo Gianniotti and Lauren Holly.
<em>The Cuban</em> portrays a young Afghan immigrant named Mina (Golja) who starts her first job at a nursing home when an unexpected friendship with Luis, a Cuban resident with dementia, reignites her love of music and changes her life.
Gossett Jr. will play the nursing home resident, Luis, and Aghdashloo ...
- 4/16/2018
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
The 15th anniversary of what's considered ‘Canada's coolest film festival' is rapidly approaching. The 2015 Whistler Film Festival (Wff) will take place December 2 to 6 with new films, special guests, industry connections, great events and time to enjoy on of North America’s premiere mountain resort destinations. Wff has announced its first 18 confirmed films, plus industry and event programming highlights.
The Whistler Film Festival combines an international film competition with a focused industry Summit dedicated to the art and business of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 80 innovative and original films from around the world and opportunities to connect with the people who made them, this year’s fest will be filled with a solid lineup of premieres, honored guests, lively celebrations, and unique industry initiatives.
Wff’s Director of Programming and industry veteran Paul Gratton had this to say about the 2015 lineup confirmed to date: “The Whistler Film Festival continues to be a must-attend event for hip, young, film buffs and emerging filmmakers, and we are pleased to carve out our own unique niche by offering an impressive selection of Canadian premieres. This year's titles cast a wide net in terms of subject matter, and our Summit will complement our film programming by addressing key challenges and opportunities facing the industry this year. WFF15 has something for everyone. "While our final line-up of titles is far from complete, early programming trends suggest a very strong year for female directors and innovative new voices from young directors hoping to find new ways of telling stories and connecting with audiences.”
A great example of innovation will be the World Premiere screening of Daniel Robinson's "Nestor," the first narrative feature ever made by one person, who wrote, produced, directed, edited and stars in this compelling tale of outdoor survival.
Another example of seeking out new narrative approaches, and leading this year's women directors present at Whistler, is Diy queen Ingrid Veninger’s latest "He Hated Pigeons" about a young man pushed to the border of sanity as he steps into manhood. Shot in South America, the film is designed to support a spontaneous live score to be performed during the screening. In other words, each screening will evoke different responses depending on the approach taken by the live musicians accompanying the showing. Other female directed highlights coming to Whistler include the World Premiere of Vancouver filmmaker Melanie Jones' "Fsm," a contemporary study of a female DJ trying to find love in a world of technological innovation and all-night raves.
Continuing its love of quirky musicals, Wff will present the Western Canadian premiere of Jude Klassen’s debut feature film "Love in the Sixth," an unromantic musical comedy of “enviromantic” angst. Another Canadian Premiere is Valerie Weiss' "A Lights Beneath Their Feet," a superb study of the mutually dependent relationship between a young student hoping to leave home for college and her bipolar mother who can't cope with the thought of letting her go. Taryn Manning, Maddie Hasson and Madison Davenport lead the cast. Another moving look at mother/daughter relationships can be found in the World Premiere of Siobhan Devine’s "The Birdwatcher," a family drama about a mother and daughter reconnecting starring WFF14 Rising Star Camille Sullivan and Gabrielle Rose.
Jeremy Lalonde's "How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town," featuring Lauren Holly and Katharine Isabelle; and Sergio Navarretta's "The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship," set during a mouth-watering winetasting tour of the Niagara region; focus on the challenge of maintaining interpersonal relationships. Darker still is the Canadian Premiere of Josh Hope's "The Life and Death of an Unhappily Married Man," in which a disillusioned young man decides to visit his past to see where it all went wrong. Brian Stockton's "The Sabbatical" is a comedic look at a photography professor's mid-life crisis and a young artist who rekindles the lost spirit of his youth, and Matthew Yim's "Basic Human Needs" follows a young couple whose plans to get out of Regina are thwarted by a missing prophylactic.
BC's own Fred Ewanuick stars as a man who can see two minutes into the future in Vancouver filmmaker O. Corbin Saleken's first feature "Patterson's Wager."
BC based genre specialist Jeffery Lando will be gracing the late night screens with the Western Canadian Premiere of his latest horror work "Suspension." John Ainslie will be unveiling the World premiere of his tense psychological thriller "The Sublet," about a new mother unraveling psychologically after and she and her fiance move into a sublet apartment, featuring Vancouver actress Tianna Nori in the lead.
On the documentary front, Wff will be presenting the North American premiere of Jan Foukal's "Amerika," a lyrical look at a unique Eastern European phenomenon known as 'tramping', as Vancouver-based Barbara Adler takes us on a mission into the mountains and the forests of the Czech Republic where she encounters social dropouts who choose to live what they consider to be a North American back-to-the-wilderness lifestyle. "Last Harvest," from director Jane Hui Wang, is a Canadian documentary feature that looks at an elderly Chinese couple forced to relocate by the government to make way for a mammoth water diversion project. Also, on the international front, Whistler is proud to present the Canadian Premiere of "Blood Cells" by Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore about a lost man wandering through the British countryside, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
As always, Whistler is pleased to feature the best of Quebec cinema, and this year the festival has two titles already lined up. Bernard Emond's "Diary of an Old Man" is a deeply moving adaptation of an Anton Chekov story about an old man fighting feelings of bitterness despite his privileged life as an academic, starring Paul Savoie in a Canada Screen Awards worthy performance. Finally, a haunting look at childhood innocence, at risk from the evils of an outside world is Philippe Lesage's "The Demons" starring Pascale Bussières and Laurent Lucas, about a tight-knit small-town community beset by a child serial killer.
Celebrating its 12th edition in 2015, Wff’s coveted Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature honors independent vision, original directorial style and the diversity of talent found in Canadian independent film. New for 2015, all Canadian feature films in the festival with Western Canadian premiere status will be included in the Borsos Competition and there is no longer a six film restriction to the number that can compete. An international jury of three will decide on four awards including a $15,000 Cdn prize.
Wff’s slate of special events confirmed to date include the Opening and Closing Galas, Signature Series including the Pandora Tribute and Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch In Conversation, ShortWork Showdown, Awards Brunch and a grand15th Anniversary Celebration, with more to come.
New for 2015, Wff introduces the L’Oreal Mens Expert Bobsleigh Race on December 3 at the Whistler Sliding Centre, one of the fastest tracks in the world, where celebrities, filmmakers, VIP guests and corporate teams will experience the thrill of a lifetime reaching speeds up to 125 km per hour. And the adrenaline continues to flow with Wff’s annual Columbia Celebrity Challenge on December 5, with corporate teams and festival guests joining the stars of the screen and the stars of the slopes in a fun, guess your time, dual slalom race on Whistler Mountain. Proceeds from these fun-raising” events will support Wff’s annual programs for Canadian artists, including the industry initiatives, labs and festival.
Film meets music at Wff’s Music Café, which has expanded to two days to include an evening showcase on December 4, and daytime showcase and dedicated industry panel on December 5, with the possibility of additional performances during the festival. Up to 10 export-ready British Columbia songwriters and artists from across the musical spectrum will be selected to each play a live 20-minute set and meet with key international music and film executives and delegates attending the festival.
Wff's Industry Summit will feature three concentrated days of business programs and networking that address the business and future of Canadian film, locally and in the international marketplace, as well as the ever-changing landscape of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 20 interactive sessions, Wff's Summit is designed to provide practical business and creative intel, and foster business collaborations for filmmakers and deal-makers. Offering in-depth conversations, lively debates and critical insight into a broad range of issues vital to the domestic and international film communities while addressing crossing borders and platforms, Whistler is the place to be, connect and deal this December. 1,000 delegates are expected to attend.
The Whistler Summit directly connects to Wff’s slate of project development programs designed to provide creative and business immersion experiences for Canadian artists including the Feature Project Lab, Praxis Screenwriters Lab, Aboriginal Filmmaker Fellowship and Music Café. Wff also collaborates with several industry organizations by hosting specific third party initiatives at the Whistler Summit including the Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch, Women in the Directors Chair Industry Immersion, Women in Film & Television Film Market Preparation Mentorship, and the Mppia Short Film Award Pitch with the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and Creative BC. Application details and information for all Wff industry and project development programs are available at whistlerfilmfestival.com.
The Whistler Film Festival combines an international film competition with a focused industry Summit dedicated to the art and business of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 80 innovative and original films from around the world and opportunities to connect with the people who made them, this year’s fest will be filled with a solid lineup of premieres, honored guests, lively celebrations, and unique industry initiatives.
Wff’s Director of Programming and industry veteran Paul Gratton had this to say about the 2015 lineup confirmed to date: “The Whistler Film Festival continues to be a must-attend event for hip, young, film buffs and emerging filmmakers, and we are pleased to carve out our own unique niche by offering an impressive selection of Canadian premieres. This year's titles cast a wide net in terms of subject matter, and our Summit will complement our film programming by addressing key challenges and opportunities facing the industry this year. WFF15 has something for everyone. "While our final line-up of titles is far from complete, early programming trends suggest a very strong year for female directors and innovative new voices from young directors hoping to find new ways of telling stories and connecting with audiences.”
A great example of innovation will be the World Premiere screening of Daniel Robinson's "Nestor," the first narrative feature ever made by one person, who wrote, produced, directed, edited and stars in this compelling tale of outdoor survival.
Another example of seeking out new narrative approaches, and leading this year's women directors present at Whistler, is Diy queen Ingrid Veninger’s latest "He Hated Pigeons" about a young man pushed to the border of sanity as he steps into manhood. Shot in South America, the film is designed to support a spontaneous live score to be performed during the screening. In other words, each screening will evoke different responses depending on the approach taken by the live musicians accompanying the showing. Other female directed highlights coming to Whistler include the World Premiere of Vancouver filmmaker Melanie Jones' "Fsm," a contemporary study of a female DJ trying to find love in a world of technological innovation and all-night raves.
Continuing its love of quirky musicals, Wff will present the Western Canadian premiere of Jude Klassen’s debut feature film "Love in the Sixth," an unromantic musical comedy of “enviromantic” angst. Another Canadian Premiere is Valerie Weiss' "A Lights Beneath Their Feet," a superb study of the mutually dependent relationship between a young student hoping to leave home for college and her bipolar mother who can't cope with the thought of letting her go. Taryn Manning, Maddie Hasson and Madison Davenport lead the cast. Another moving look at mother/daughter relationships can be found in the World Premiere of Siobhan Devine’s "The Birdwatcher," a family drama about a mother and daughter reconnecting starring WFF14 Rising Star Camille Sullivan and Gabrielle Rose.
Jeremy Lalonde's "How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town," featuring Lauren Holly and Katharine Isabelle; and Sergio Navarretta's "The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship," set during a mouth-watering winetasting tour of the Niagara region; focus on the challenge of maintaining interpersonal relationships. Darker still is the Canadian Premiere of Josh Hope's "The Life and Death of an Unhappily Married Man," in which a disillusioned young man decides to visit his past to see where it all went wrong. Brian Stockton's "The Sabbatical" is a comedic look at a photography professor's mid-life crisis and a young artist who rekindles the lost spirit of his youth, and Matthew Yim's "Basic Human Needs" follows a young couple whose plans to get out of Regina are thwarted by a missing prophylactic.
BC's own Fred Ewanuick stars as a man who can see two minutes into the future in Vancouver filmmaker O. Corbin Saleken's first feature "Patterson's Wager."
BC based genre specialist Jeffery Lando will be gracing the late night screens with the Western Canadian Premiere of his latest horror work "Suspension." John Ainslie will be unveiling the World premiere of his tense psychological thriller "The Sublet," about a new mother unraveling psychologically after and she and her fiance move into a sublet apartment, featuring Vancouver actress Tianna Nori in the lead.
On the documentary front, Wff will be presenting the North American premiere of Jan Foukal's "Amerika," a lyrical look at a unique Eastern European phenomenon known as 'tramping', as Vancouver-based Barbara Adler takes us on a mission into the mountains and the forests of the Czech Republic where she encounters social dropouts who choose to live what they consider to be a North American back-to-the-wilderness lifestyle. "Last Harvest," from director Jane Hui Wang, is a Canadian documentary feature that looks at an elderly Chinese couple forced to relocate by the government to make way for a mammoth water diversion project. Also, on the international front, Whistler is proud to present the Canadian Premiere of "Blood Cells" by Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore about a lost man wandering through the British countryside, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
As always, Whistler is pleased to feature the best of Quebec cinema, and this year the festival has two titles already lined up. Bernard Emond's "Diary of an Old Man" is a deeply moving adaptation of an Anton Chekov story about an old man fighting feelings of bitterness despite his privileged life as an academic, starring Paul Savoie in a Canada Screen Awards worthy performance. Finally, a haunting look at childhood innocence, at risk from the evils of an outside world is Philippe Lesage's "The Demons" starring Pascale Bussières and Laurent Lucas, about a tight-knit small-town community beset by a child serial killer.
Celebrating its 12th edition in 2015, Wff’s coveted Borsos Award for Best Canadian Feature honors independent vision, original directorial style and the diversity of talent found in Canadian independent film. New for 2015, all Canadian feature films in the festival with Western Canadian premiere status will be included in the Borsos Competition and there is no longer a six film restriction to the number that can compete. An international jury of three will decide on four awards including a $15,000 Cdn prize.
Wff’s slate of special events confirmed to date include the Opening and Closing Galas, Signature Series including the Pandora Tribute and Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch In Conversation, ShortWork Showdown, Awards Brunch and a grand15th Anniversary Celebration, with more to come.
New for 2015, Wff introduces the L’Oreal Mens Expert Bobsleigh Race on December 3 at the Whistler Sliding Centre, one of the fastest tracks in the world, where celebrities, filmmakers, VIP guests and corporate teams will experience the thrill of a lifetime reaching speeds up to 125 km per hour. And the adrenaline continues to flow with Wff’s annual Columbia Celebrity Challenge on December 5, with corporate teams and festival guests joining the stars of the screen and the stars of the slopes in a fun, guess your time, dual slalom race on Whistler Mountain. Proceeds from these fun-raising” events will support Wff’s annual programs for Canadian artists, including the industry initiatives, labs and festival.
Film meets music at Wff’s Music Café, which has expanded to two days to include an evening showcase on December 4, and daytime showcase and dedicated industry panel on December 5, with the possibility of additional performances during the festival. Up to 10 export-ready British Columbia songwriters and artists from across the musical spectrum will be selected to each play a live 20-minute set and meet with key international music and film executives and delegates attending the festival.
Wff's Industry Summit will feature three concentrated days of business programs and networking that address the business and future of Canadian film, locally and in the international marketplace, as well as the ever-changing landscape of filmmaking in the digital age. Featuring over 20 interactive sessions, Wff's Summit is designed to provide practical business and creative intel, and foster business collaborations for filmmakers and deal-makers. Offering in-depth conversations, lively debates and critical insight into a broad range of issues vital to the domestic and international film communities while addressing crossing borders and platforms, Whistler is the place to be, connect and deal this December. 1,000 delegates are expected to attend.
The Whistler Summit directly connects to Wff’s slate of project development programs designed to provide creative and business immersion experiences for Canadian artists including the Feature Project Lab, Praxis Screenwriters Lab, Aboriginal Filmmaker Fellowship and Music Café. Wff also collaborates with several industry organizations by hosting specific third party initiatives at the Whistler Summit including the Variety 10 Screenwriters to Watch, Women in the Directors Chair Industry Immersion, Women in Film & Television Film Market Preparation Mentorship, and the Mppia Short Film Award Pitch with the Motion Picture Production Industry Association and Creative BC. Application details and information for all Wff industry and project development programs are available at whistlerfilmfestival.com.
- 9/7/2015
- by Peter Belsito
- Sydney's Buzz
From the "Italian Contemporary Film Festival", screening June 11 to June 19, 2015, Sneak Peek footage from director Sergio Navarretta's new romantic comedy "The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship", starring Krista Bridges, Enrico Colantoni, David Cubitt, Brooke Palsson and Tony Nappo:
"...'Cat' has a mediocre job, a mundane social life and her relationship with 'Freddy' has been, well…uninspired. Enter 'Richard', Freddy’s boss. Charming, gregarious, astute, and shockingly self-confident, he promises to be everything Freddy is not.
"Cat and Richard’s brief encounter evolves into an affair. Overwhelmed by her own guilt, however, she breaks it off to make a final, sincere attempt to reignite the flame with Freddy with a romantic trip to wine country.
"Nothing, however, can prepare Cat for what happens when she finds out Richard – accompanied by his perky, perfect young girlfriend, 'Amy' – is joining them..."
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship...
"...'Cat' has a mediocre job, a mundane social life and her relationship with 'Freddy' has been, well…uninspired. Enter 'Richard', Freddy’s boss. Charming, gregarious, astute, and shockingly self-confident, he promises to be everything Freddy is not.
"Cat and Richard’s brief encounter evolves into an affair. Overwhelmed by her own guilt, however, she breaks it off to make a final, sincere attempt to reignite the flame with Freddy with a romantic trip to wine country.
"Nothing, however, can prepare Cat for what happens when she finds out Richard – accompanied by his perky, perfect young girlfriend, 'Amy' – is joining them..."
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Colossal Failure of the Modern Relationship...
- 6/15/2015
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
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